Radio Pranksters Who Posed as Queen Pulled Off Air After Nurse's Death

Radio Pranksters Who Posed as Queen Pulled Off Air After Nurse's Death

The two Australian radio hosts who prank called the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated have been pulled off the air "until further notice" after the hoaxed nurse was found dead today.

"Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and 2Day FM are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha from King Edward VII's Hospital and we extend our deepest sympathies to her family and all that have been affected by this situation around the world," the radio station said in a statement posted on their Facebook page.

The station's chief executive spoke with the DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, and "they are both deeply shocked," the statement said. The parties agreed that the hosts would not comment on the situation.

"SCA and the hosts have decided that they will not return to their radio show until further notice out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy," the statement said.

6. They shouldn't. It is not their fault.

10. You're right. It's the stupid nurse's fault

For entering a profession where the stress levels are phenomenal; where you are required to sacrifice your own health, finances, and families for assholes like the "shock jocks" that pulled their stupid-shit prank and put her career on the line for the "fun" of publicly humiliating her in front of her colleagues and the world; where other people's lives depend on you all day or night; where everybody in line ahead of you might fuck up and if you're the last one in the line that costs a life your career is over; where privacy laws rule every word you say and scrap of paper you toss in the wrong place; and where somebody trained as a nurse was made to fill in for a receptionist.

She was right to kill herself. I can't tell you how close I've come to suicide in my 2 years of training in med lab technology and my 1 year on the job. As of 2 weeks ago I've returned to the CSR job I had while in school. Too bad she only had her nursing career and nothing else to fall back on. But I suppose that was her fault too.

11. Understandable anger.

I think that a lot of posters who are dismissing this young woman's despair have no idea how much stress there is in nursing, and how career-ending a mistake that violates patient confidentiality can be, not to mention the nursing professional's deep commitment to patient care and protecting their patients. The young woman must have been devastated.

12. Why does someone have to be at fault?

You can look all day long for someone to blame, for someone to burn, but at the end of the day some tragedies just don't have anyone to blame. This is one of them.

However, if you DO really need someone to blame, you should start with the media that hyped this to the extreme and played the tape over and over and over, and whipped up millions into a frenzied outrage. Had the media not done that, how many people would have heard about this? How many would have cared?

36. What they did was irresponsible and cruel

Hospitals are not the place to be playing pranks. This is on a level with fake 911 calls and should be made illegal.

People go to hospitals because they are seriously ill or injured. Employees in hospitals have enormous responsibilities -- they literally have lives in their hands.

The job is complex and demanding. The work environment is extremely stressful. The hours are long and exhausting, the workload can be quite high and fast-paced, the investment in training is extremely high and the pay quite low. It takes a very dedicated person to make nursing their career. There is a reason there is a chronic shortage of nurses.

The price for making mistakes is very, very high. The mistake those assholes deliberately and maliciously tricked her into for their supposed entertainment were career-ending, with or without publicity. Not long ago, the hospital that I am leaving escorted a receptionist out the door for making a privacy mistake.

Obviously there would be publicity -- that was the nature of their stupid and cruel stunt. The fact that it involved royalty just made the situation for that poor woman all the worse.

It was a vile, vile thing to do. Beyond thoughtless. Those assholes should be forced to spend a year scrubbing floors on a burn ward. Frankly so should anybody else who thinks this was some harmless little joke.

39. "vile", "beyond thoughtless", "stupid and cruel"...

Yes, that certainly describes a minute-long conversation in which the "pranker" says hello and asks how someone is doing.

Here is the entirety of the conversation:

GREIG: Hello, I’m just after my granddaughter Kate. I wanted to see how her little tummy bug is going.

NURSE: She’s sleeping at the moment. And she had an uneventful night. And sleep is good for her. As we speak, she’s been getting some fluids to rehydrate her. She was quite dehydrated when she came in. But she’s stable at the moment.

GREIG: Okay, ill just feed my little corgies then.

CHRISTIAN: Lovely. But they’re all okay, everything’s alright?

NURSE: Yes, she’s quite stable at the moment. She hasn’t had any retching with me, since I’ve been on duty. And she’s been sleeping on and off.

CHRISTIAN: Wonderful.

NURSE: And I think it’s difficult sleeping in a strange bed as well.

CHRISTIAN: Yes, of course! It’s hardly the palace, is it?

GREIG: Oh, it’s nothing like the palace, is it, Charles?

Oh wait. It involves "royalty", as you note. Thus it was necessary for people to get OUTRAGED over this call. If we'd been talking about a mere "commoner", few people would have given a shit. Like in this case:

There's another "prank call" to a hospital. But nobody gave a shit that it was done because a "royal" wasn't involved. In fact, you can do a search on YouTube and find many more. I personally think 99% of prank calls are stupid and lame (this one and the others found on YouTube) with only a few being really well done.

But I'm talking about the selective outrage here.

NOBODY here on this site gave a shit when news of this call was released. Now suddenly people are talking about how horrible and cruel it was. Well if the prank itself was cruel then it would have been so whether this nurse committed suicide or not; yet no one here was calling it cruel. And the nurse, as far as we know, had NOT been fired.

44. How convenient to leave out the beginning of the call

You know, the part with nurse on duty as receptionist whom they tricked. Not the nurse who gave out the info, the nurse they tricked. The one who killed herself as a direct result.

And exactly what do the other instances have to do with this one? What is your point? This one led to outrage not because it was heavily publicized due to the victims, but because it drove somebody to SUICIDE.

Just because nobody noticed the other prank privacy violations doesn't mean they weren't important too. A lot of threads disappear on DU before they're ever seen. If the targets in this case were as famous as the Queen of England, then it probably would have been seen. That has zip to do with the outrage.

What part of this do you not understand?

There are only certain people allowed medical information. Any violation of patient privacy -- no matter who it is -- is grounds for termination. Deliberately tricking somebody into inadvertently breaking a rule is a vicious and cruel thing to do regardless of the intended target.

No, she wasn't fired, as far as we know. That does not mean she was not about to be fired, or punished in a big way, or tortured into quitting. Do you think that does not happen? For all we know, she may have found herself right back at square one, scheduled to work 14 hour overnight shifts forever or until she quit or died, whichever came first. Because if you think managers won't torture people into quitting, you are living in a very different working world than I've lived in for the last 50 years or so.

All prank calls to hospitals are stupid and they all should be illegal. In this case, a prank call led directly to a suicide. In another case, it could easily lead to distraction that could impact care of other patients.

Maybe the publicity surrounding this one, not to mention the minor little SUICIDE, will lead to action against deliberate perpetrators of privacy violations, instead of only leading to action against their victims.

But just keep trying to find some reason that it's nobody's fault this poor nurse was driven to suicide.

46. I hope you're enjoying your selective outrage here.

The fact is you are looking for someone, anyone to blame without considering what actually happened. Instead of spewing your outrage at the people most responsible in this instance -- those being the people in the media who hyped this by playing the tape over and over, and whipping everyone into a hysterical frenzy of outrage -- you put all blame on someone who literally said hello and asked how Catherine was doing.

You want the beginning of the call? I didn't include it because it's even more innocuous than the bit I did post. Here you go:

They literally only said "Hello, can I speak to Kate?" And the receptionist put the call through. Actually, the incompetence is pretty amazing. Someone calls and simply asks to the Duchess of Cambridge -- with a terribly fake English accent, no less -- and they are put through right away to her nurse, no questions asked. Incredible.

So please, spare me the outrage. This is a tragedy and not grabbing the pitchforks doesn't make it any less of one.

13. Thanks for this! It was a joke! They happen every day!

29. Oh yes it is!

The consequences were unintended, but they are still 100% responsible for these consequences. Your comment reminds me of the parents of bullies who can't see how their children could be responsible when their bullying results in tragedy.

I tell my kids that if they make prank calls, they don't know how fragile the person is and they might be responsible for doing harm. Same think for ding-dong-ditch. These pranksters will have to live with the consequences of their actions and unless they are psychopaths, they are likely impacted deeply.

31. good post

32. No, it is not.

Bullying? BS. Tell me how this is "bullying":

GREIG: Hello, I’m just after my granddaughter Kate. I wanted to see how her little tummy bug is going.

NURSE: She’s sleeping at the moment. And she had an uneventful night. And sleep is good for her. As we speak, she’s been getting some fluids to rehydrate her. She was quite dehydrated when she came in. But she’s stable at the moment.

GREIG: Okay, ill just feed my little corgies then.

CHRISTIAN: Lovely. But they’re all okay, everything’s alright?

NURSE: Yes, she’s quite stable at the moment. She hasn’t had any retching with me, since I’ve been on duty. And she’s been sleeping on and off.

CHRISTIAN: Wonderful.

NURSE: And I think it’s difficult sleeping in a strange bed as well.

CHRISTIAN: Yes, of course! It’s hardly the palace, is it?

GREIG: Oh, it’s nothing like the palace, is it, Charles?

The guy asked to speak to Kate and how she was doing.

That is LITERALLY it. That is not "bullying" by any stretch of the imagination.

You want to blame someone? How about blaming the media that went completely overboard and whipped people up into a frenzy over this non-story? Sarah Palin was prank called in 2008 by a guy pretending to be the president of France -- and he actually got through to her. There was zero outrage about that (nor should there have been).

38. Do As You Please.

Your sunny thoughts don't change the fact that those DJ's and their little joke were the proximate cause of that nurse's suicide. They were media professionals, so they knew about how the media might handle their little stunt---they surely reveled in the sort of big-time publicity they got. And just a tad of research would have indicated the London hospital they targeted had been taking care of the royal family for a long time, thus making the nursing staff gullible marks for such an ugly prank.

There may not be any legal recourse for the nurse's family, but those DJ's should be fired, and they should never be allowed near a microphone again. And they ought to put in some time at the nearest suicide hot line, to see if they can save some lives, for a change.

41. I don't have any "sunny thoughts".

I have no problem at all with them being fired. As I understand it, they already have been. And remember, this wasn't even their planned prank. This was just them trying to reach Catherine. If they had reached her, I think whatever they had planned was far worse (and they are known for this).

The hospital should also make some changes -- perhaps starting with better training for staff about handling calls to patients and giving out patient information or changing the way such calls are handled.

And I also think the media shares some responsibility. Media outlets all over the world replayed that tape over and over and whipped people into a frenzy.

35. I did not say this was bullying.

I said that this reminds me of how people don't take responsibility for the unintended consequences of their actions.

I find it interesting that you don't know the difference between taking responsibility and blaming others. You might look up "learner path and judger path" for a good explanation online.

These two radio personalities likely know they are responsible. While the public takes sides, they will be uncomforted by reassurances that it was not their fault. In one's heart, we know.

Perhaps you might consider a more personal example. You play a joke on someone. You don't think through how this joke might embarrass, humiliate, or cause them harm. This joke turns out to not be funny to the other person. You laugh "ha,ha,ha" cause it was so funny to you. They are devastated because it is embarrassing and humiliating to them. Would you not take responsibility for having caused them pain? If not, well then, you missed some life lessons along the way.

40. "difference between taking responsibility and blaming others"

Interesting, because I'm not the one who has a problem in that department. It's other people here who seek to blame someone, anyone, for this tragedy. Should the prankers in this case take responsibility for the fact that their "prank" had an unintended consequence? Yes, they absolutely should. But that doesn't mean they are to blame here, nor does it mean it is their fault. Not all tragedies have someone to blame.

Remember during the debates when President Obama said about the Benghazi tragedy that as president he was "responsible"? Does that mean it was his fault? No. It meant he had a responsibility, once he was aware of the situation, to take appropriate action. In this case, the DJs also have a responsibility to take appropriate action -- which may mean apologizing for the unintended consequences.

14. Really? So the people who did it to Scott walker were evil too?

16. Scott Walker is a governor. This woman was a private citizen, and a nurse

meaning that her job was literally on the line when she made a mistake (violating her patient's privacy so the DJs could then make a "joke" of whatever she revealed) and talked to these idiots. Pranking a public official is one thing (thought I am not a fan of "shock jock" antics)-- deliberately using/abusing/manipulating private citizens who may very well lose their jobs to enable a "joke" that will go 'round the world is deeply unethical -- and very callous.

21. Exactly. For a nurse, this could well be career-ending. Sorry, not funny.

I have family members in careers that demand very high levels of confidentiality -- a public mistake like this one, then spread around the world, could easily end a career. Not a joke, just the truth for certain professions.

23. yes, that's why it's different from things callign news shows which is where they should

try to pull pranks. and other things involving public figures like politicians. in those cases the people who work for them are prepared to deal with this stuff. and if they make a mistake like in the case of prank on palin the worst is humiliation of apublic figure.

but in this case it involves someone's medical information being made public.

there are differences, just like there were when Sandra Fluke was being attacked and it wasn't the same as attacks on Romney. remember republicans trying to say Obama was a hypocrite for not defending political attacks on Romney when he defended Fluke ?

20. Seems rather dim not to realize that a nurse could lose her job over this

These "DJs" had to be extremely narrow individuals not to realize that such a prank, conducted on a member of the hospital staff in order to get info about one of the biggest international stories of the week, would have some degree of "harm" for the hospital staff member.

28. I'm curious if the radio show was taped or live

If it was taped or delayed, then someone involved with the show ought to have realized the nurse would get into trouble. But if it was live, then I don't think the radio hosts could have foretold that the nurse would give out confidential info.

45. Taped - and management and lawyer(s) said it was OK to broadcast

The call was recorded before being assessed by the station's lawyers and then broadcast.

"King Edward VII's Hospital cares for sick people, and it was extremely foolish of your presenters even to consider trying to lie their way through to one of our patients, let alone actually make the call," Lord Glenarthur wrote.

"Then to discover that, not only had this happened, but that the call had been pre-recorded and the decision to transmit approved by your station's management, was truly appalling."

25. "Don't make someone a worldwide laughingstock" is a good rule of thumb, too

A lot of people pooh-poohing this whole thing (or the few scumbags actively defending the DJs) have a nice blind spot in their worldviews shaped almost exactly the same as what that kind of experience would be like in this day and age.